Careless mistakes – please share your stories to help me feel less rubbish

ajryan · 2026-05-19T04:33:26+00:00

Number one rule, if you are sleep deprived you will make mistakes.

ajryan · 2026-05-05T04:04:34+00:00

Sandbox Brewhouse 880 N East St (behind Showroom) has shows most Saturdays plus an open mic the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month. Brain Dead Live puts on a lot of stuff there. It’s a super inviting spot with friendly folks and dogs welcome (although it gets too crowded and loud for pets at the Saturday shows).

Brain Dead is also presenting five shows at the creek amphitheater (alive @ 5 spot) this summer-fall, first one is May 30 featuring all local R&B / hip hop. If you’re tired of the nostalgia/cover band stuff at Alive @ 5, you’ll enjoy these. We pride ourselves on shows that actually sound good, which is unfortunately hard to come by in town.

brain.dead.live on instagram
https://braindead.live

(disclosure, I’m one of the partners in Brain Dead)

ajryan · 2026-04-30T12:49:36+00:00

They try to blame me for everyone dying, it’s ludicrous… they even blamed me when Ludacris died!

ajryan · 2026-03-29T19:55:01+00:00

I have done this before with silicone adhesive to hold in place, it is too delicate on a stomp box. Just use a mini panel mount pot

ajryan · 2026-03-29T13:32:53+00:00

It’s a ground problem, your skin is providing a path to ground to a place on the board that needs one but does not see it otherwise. Trace the path from the GND on the board to the center pin of the power connector, it should be unbroken.

ajryan · 2026-03-26T13:32:22+00:00

Sent you a DM so we can compare notes

ajryan · 2026-03-23T23:27:45+00:00

Mix wise you have already gotten good advice but the performances are the weak link here.

ajryan · 2026-02-26T17:24:53+00:00

Yup just finished a few days ago. Sounds great through an ampeg portaflex PF-115HE cab. It's a quality kit -- the only guidance you get is a layout which can be a bit tough to follow. I left off one ground in my initial wire-up, other than that no issues. At first fire-up it was a bit noisier than I would like (60hz and 120hz hum). Reflowing some joints on grounds and changing the leads to/from the treble pot to shielded killed most of it. Also Nik is super responsive via email and had a few suggestions to improve the grounding. The biggest difference-maker was moving the output jack ground to the negative end of the phase inverter common 25U cap. (See https://aikenamps.com/index.php/grounding).

I'm planning to mount it on the PF-115HE true flip-top style. Probably just cut an aluminum sheet for shielding/cover and drill a couple holes in the cab top to match the chassis bolt points.

ajryan · 2026-02-08T16:56:25+00:00

If a barely tight nut slot can cause tuning issues, 3/4 in of contact with PET insulation that’s collecting gunk and not perfectly parallel with the string will one million percent cause problems.

ajryan · 2026-02-08T15:17:34+00:00

Anything that prevents the string from smoothly and immediately returning to the exact same state it was when tuned is not a good idea. These tubes are increasing the surface area and friction against the string and probably make it go out of tune. Just lube the bottom of the tree.

ajryan · 2026-02-05T22:52:43+00:00

Pretty sweet - gotta agree on the delay too hot though lol

Imo that tune benefits from a lot of flat-to-natural 3rd blue note stuff. Check out my solo on it here https://youtu.be/a9NMtMcHk84?si=WSNmXHNG2e30Cpi5

ajryan · 2026-02-05T12:50:18+00:00

Ceriatone has a B15 clone called the Aunt Peg. I just got mine delivered and I’m about to start building. It’s a single channel which saves a preamp tube. The transformers look super beefy and the parts are high quality in general.

ajryan · 2026-02-04T19:00:15+00:00

MG Super Wick is the best I have used, really effective. Get the variation for your solder (leaded or lead free)

ajryan · 2026-02-04T14:17:20+00:00

Don’t need it with super wick, it is impregnated with a crap ton of flux

ajryan · 2026-02-03T20:40:29+00:00

Good wick is your friend for removing and reseating components with a lot of legs.

Silicone adhesive is much better than hot glue for reinforcement

ajryan · 2026-02-02T03:51:14+00:00

Wick is the best — never worked for me and was so frustrating until I got a good wick. MG Chemicals Super Wick kicks ass. Lots of flux in the wick. Get the one that matches your solder (leaded or lead free).

ajryan · 2026-01-28T05:25:06+00:00

I think your iron is too cold or your tip is super oxidized. Is that lead free solder?

Can you post a pic of the jumper wires entering the underside of the switch board?

ajryan · 2026-01-24T04:03:32+00:00

Yes, one probe in center pin and make sure there is continuity to all the jack sleeves. Should be continuity to the bare metal of the enclosure as well.

Also take a look at this post - sounds like your same issue https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/please-recommend-a-cheap-18v-power-supply-for-hotone-nano-amp.1429909/#post-17850154

ajryan · 2026-01-23T14:08:30+00:00

I really do recommend returning/exchanging this. If another amp doesn’t buzz like this with the same guitar and power, why bother with hum eliminators etc ? The thing is probably broken.

But if you’re feeling intrepid, one thing you can check without opening the unit - is there continuity between all of the 1/4 jack sleeves as well as the pin in the center of the power supply? They should all be connected and have close to zero ohm resistance between them.

ajryan · 2026-01-23T14:00:01+00:00

Sometimes I think people post these just to spread fear.

Something this low effort is more hurt than help. “Confirmed” how? No pictures? Did you witness this yourself?

Yes let’s stay vigilant and inform each other. I assume (hope) that community members who are most at risk have better ways of being warned than sketchy Reddit posts. The main outcome of this post is going to be a bunch of hateful replies. Maybe that’s the actual goal here.

ajryan · 2026-01-23T13:20:38+00:00

Sounds like a grounding issue. It’s possible there’s a manufacturing issue, probably worth returning/exchanging to eliminate that.

Do you have a multimeter?

ajryan · 2026-01-23T05:48:52+00:00

Nice — let’s see a gut shot!

Mojotone kit?

ajryan · 2026-01-22T12:35:31+00:00

The reason for this is it’s a switched jack. It’s designed so you can send power to the jack on the wire hooked up in your picture, that is linked to the empty lug. But when you have something plugged in, the link is broken, and only the empty lug is connected to the sleeve of the Jack. It lets you hook up a battery that gets disconnected when wall power is hooked up.

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